Wednesday, 20 May 2015

There
is probably no better way of summing up the eventual reconciliation of
the factionalised Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) than to say all is well
that ends well.

After almost two years of deep crisis,
the 36 governors of the federation in the early hours of yesterday put
their partisan differences aside and asked the Coordinating Minister for
the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to
account for the $20 billion oil revenue the nation earned.

This is the first joint meeting of all the governors since May 24,
2013, when the governors’ crisis broke out, following the election that
produced the Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, with 19 votes to
beat Jonah Jang of Plateau State who polled 16 votes.

Reading the resolution of the meeting at about 1.08 am, the Chairman of the forum, Governor Amaechi, said: "In
the light of the fact that funds in the Excess Crude Account were last
disbursed in May 2013, there is need for the Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to
provide explanation for accruals to the account from June 2013 to April
2015, which is estimated at over $20 billion."

The
governors in the communiqué said: "We are hereby reconciled and united
as a single united umbrella association of the 36 state governors of
Nigeria regardless of party or region."

In view of this,
Amaechi said in the communiqué that Governor Abdullazeez Yari of Zamfara
State has been elected as the Chairman of the NGF by consensus for one
year period of May 2015 to May 2016.

The governors also
congratulated the President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, and commended the
outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat.

Amaechi announced that there would be a retreat in June for the incoming
governors, adding that it is aimed at equipping the new and returning
governors with knowledge of global best practices for running their
offices.

The communiqué further said that the NGF would
establish an academy to be known as the "NGF Leadership Academy", which
would be responsible for capacity building for governors and other
officials holding public office. The academy will be overseen by the NGF
secretariat.

In her response to the demand for an explanation
on the $20 billion accruals to the Excess Crude Account, Okonjo-Iweala
described as strange demands by the governors for an explanation on
alleged missing $20 billion from the Excess Crude Account (ECA).

In a statement issued last night by her Special Adviser, Mr. Paul
Nwabuikwu, the minister affirmed that the governors’ allegation was
totally strange because the Federation Account Allocation Committee
(FAAC) meets every month “and the ECA is discussed at every session with
all the state commissioners of finance present”.
“Nothing is hidden. At these meetings, the Honourable Minister of
State, who is the Chair of FAAC announces the balance in the ECA, which
is then discussed. So governors who want any information about the ECA
should ask for details from their commissioners who should have the
records of what was discussed and agreed upon,” Okonjo-Iweala stressed.

According to her, details of the ECA are also published every month
along with the allocations to the three tiers of government.

“The reference to June 2013 in the statement is probably because the
National Economic Council last met in May 2013. But this is immaterial
because the FAAC meetings during which the ECA and similar issues are
discussed have generally held regularly every month.
“It is interesting that Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, who
was reported to have read the communique on behalf of the governors made
a similar unsubstantiated allegation in November 2013 that $5 billion
was missing from the ECA.
“We subsequently showed with facts that not only was the amount not
missing, Rivers State received N257.6 billion from the Federation
Account between January and October 2013, the second highest among the
states, of which N56.2 billion from the Excess Crude Account was a part.
“In the interest of transparency and accountability, and to throw more
light on this issue, the Federal Ministry of Finance will publish
details of the ECA for the last four years within the next few days,”
the statement concluded.